My Other BAG Day Purchase: Smith & Wesson Bodyguard .380

Not content with just one BAG day purchase, I went out and bought another little firearm: A Smith & Wesson Bodyguard .380. I’ve had a P-3AT for a while, and it’s a fine little pocket pistol. It’s reliable and, if not accurate, easy enough to shoot when needed. Though it does tend to wear my hands out at the range when putting more than just a couple of magazines through it.

The Bodyguard .380 is slightly larger, and slightly more expensive, but it comes with a few more features that the P-3AT lacked. First and foremost (for me anyway) is the addition of a slide lock and a handy takedown lever. Kel-Tec neglected to put either one of these on their little .380, and that tends to make life a bit more difficult. The designers also included a safety, which I found to be redundant given the stiff (but smooth) DAO trigger, and difficult to use as well. The other selling points of the sub-compact Smith & Wesson are the inclusion of full-size sights and a top-quality Insight laser aiming device.

.380 pocket pistols are not known for their accuracy, and many have only the most rudimentary of sights atop the slide. The Bodyguard uses a black-on-black Partridge-style serrated front post and rear notch configuration favored by many pistol experts, and this is fine by itself. The addition of the Insight laser just in front of the trigger guard truly sets this pistol at a level above all the others.